A New End
by Diamond Rose Black
Summary: This is going to be an epicly long fic and it begins right after 8x21. It will involve Team Free Will 2.0, a profound bond between a hunter and an angel, another apocalypse, an archangel back from the dead, a rescue from Purgatory, a demon turned human, a journey through Hell and Heaven, the power of free will conquering evil, and maybe even a happily ever after for Team Free Will.


Whenever Dean is cruising back to the bat cave in his baby after having a chat with a prophet and the scribe of God, one of the things that is definitely not on his list of "the expected" is seeing a bleeding Angel of The Lord in a trench coat lying in the middle of the road.

Even from a distance, as soon as Dean saw the outline of a trench coat, he just knew in his gut that this was Castiel.

A million thoughts ran through Dean's head at once. "You fucker, I've been praying to you for weeks and NOW you fucking show up?" "Holy shit, what happened to him, angels shouldn't be covered in blood and lying in the middle of the road, waiting for death." "Wait, is he even himself? Last time I checked, he was Heaven's bitch and he was trying to kill me." "Oh SHIT I need to hit the brakes now before I run him over."

Dean slammed the impala to a stop just before he turned his best friend into an angel pancake. Seeing Cas up close, his injuries were worse than Dean had assumed. He looked awful.

Dean clamored out of the car. "CAS!" he yelled, staring in shock at his currently broken angel.

"A little help here," was Castiel's snarky reply.

Dean didn't even have time to feel a surge of pride for his angel's recently acquired proficiency with sarcasm before he was leaping forward to help Cas into his baby. Dean felt Sam appear on the other side of Cas and the two of them carefully and quickly helped the angel into the backseat of the impala.

For once, Dean didn't even care if blood got on the seat.

"Hang in there, Cas, we've got you. The batcave is just a few miles down the road. It's okay, Cas, we'll take care of you. Come on, Cas, just stay with us, man." The two Winchesters kept up a steady stream of encouraging commentary as they rushed the angel to safety.

As Dean peeled down the road at 110 mph, he peeked in the rear view mirror and saw Castiel's head nodding, barely clinging to consciousness. He exchanged a panicked look with Sam before urging his baby up to 120.

When they finally made it home after what seemed like an eternity, Dean flung open his car door and sped to get Cas out of the back seat and into the safety of the bunker where he could fix him.

Jimmy Novak had been a fairly little dude, so Dean had no problem gathering Castiel up in his arms and carrying him through the door that Sam had helpfully opened bridal style.

Sam hurriedly surged ahead of Dean, grabbing first aid supplies and clearing the path to Dean's room.

"Shit, he's lost a ton of blood," Sam said worriedly as Dean gently laid Castiel down on his bed.

Sam hurriedly stripped off Castiel's coat, jacket, shirt, tie, and undershirt, exposing the gaping wound while Dean nudged at Cas and tried to urge him to stay conscious.

"Cas, man, I know it's hard, but you gotta stay with us. I dunno why your angel mojo isn't working, but we can fix this the human way alright? Just stay with us. We've got you, buddy."

Sam's hands were shaky as he tried to clean the wound but he was weak and he wasn't doing a very good job.

"Let me," Dean snapped. "You just talk to him, okay?"

Sam nodded and shoved the first aid supplies at Dean obediently.

Sam nudged Cas's shoulder and muttered to him while Dean quickly tended to the gaping hole in Castiel's stomach. "Hey, Cas, you with us? Don't worry, Dean's really good at this. He'll have you fixed up brand new in no time. You're in good hands, man." As Castiel winced in pain, Sam squeezed his shoulder. "I know, man, I know it hurts, but don't think about it. It'll be over soon, I promise. Look, let's talk about something else, yeah? Just listen to me. I don't know what's been going on with you but I'm sure you had your reasons for being away from Dean these last few weeks. But we've missed you, man. We're glad you're back and we're gonna take care of you, Cas. You're family. You're like our brother. Anyway, we found Metatron and Kevin's been working on translating the tablet. We figured out the third task so that's pretty good news, I'd say."

Dean blessed his brother's soothing voice and calming tone as Castiel relaxed and began to breathe easier as Dean began stitching up his now disinfected wound.

Castiel seemed to have a firm hold on consciousness now and he inhaled a shaky breath before rasping, "Thank you, Sam. Dean."

Sam smiled and squeezed his shoulder, "No problem, man. This is what family is for."

Dean grunted and forced a smile onto his own face, which was hard because Castiel's stomach was really disturbing. "Yeah, Cas, buddy. You've saved our asses more times than we can count, so we're always happy to return the favor."

Castiel smiled a small, grateful smile and let out a small cough.

"Hey, Sammy?" Dean said as he carefully and precisely stitched up his angel's torn abdomen. "Get Cas some water, will ya? His voice sounds painful."

"Sure," Sam said, nodding, before squeezing Castiel's shoulder again and inelegantly padding out of Dean's room.

"Dean," Castiel croaked. "I -"

"Shh, man, hang on, it's okay," Dean interrupted. "It sounds kind of torturous for you to talk at the moment and I'm concentrating on fixing you so whatever it is can wait a bit, okay?"

He saw Castiel nod out of the corner of his eye and he was aware of Castiel staring intently at him as he stitched up the angel's stomach.

"Here, Cas," Sam said, rushing into the room and sloshing a glass of water everywhere.

Castiel took the glass and raised it to his lips, drinking the whole thing in one go. "Thank you, Sam," he said when he was through.

Sam tried to hide a smirk. "No problem, Cas."

Dean was almost done stitching up Castiel's gashes and he was kind of proud of his work. In another life, he totally could have been a doctor. Like Dr. Sexy, he thought, smiling to himself. Only sexier.

"Sammy, will you grab Cas some clean clothes to put on out of my dresser there?"

"Sure," Sam nodded, getting up on his shaky legs and knocking into the night stand in the process. "Sorry," he muttered before hurrying over to Dean's dresser and pulling out a tshirt and sweatpants.

"Sam, go take a bath or something and then get to bed, man, I've got this," Dean said, giving his brother a firm, concerned look. He trusted his brother to take care of himself even though the trials were clearly having a bad effect on him, but still, there was no reason for Sam to exert himself fussing over Cas when he obviously was having his own issues.

"Okay," Sam said quietly, smiling apologetically at Cas. "It's been a long day," he explained. "I'll see you in the morning, Cas."

Sam left and Dean silently finished up stitching the angel's torso. When he was finished he methodically cleaned the area again and motioned for Castiel to sit up so he could wrap some gauze around his stomach.

Castiel was staring at him so intently that he began to feel awkward so he cleared his throat and broke the silence. "So, what's been going on with you? I've been praying, but-"

"I know, Dean, and I'm sorry."

Dean looked up and met Castiel's eyes. His sapphire gaze was so intense, Dean couldn't help but infer that he was apologizing for something more than just ignoring Dean's calls.

"Yeah, okay. So, um, why haven't you been around?"

Castiel sighed and closed his eyes. Dean stared at him, waiting.

"Dean, when I obtained the angel tablet, it broke my connection with Naomi and I knew that it was vitally important. I knew that I had to protect the tablet at all costs. I didn't want to leave you and I'm sorry that I had to. I'm sorry about everything that happened while Naomi was manipulating my actions. I'm sorry for -"

The angel's voice broke. Dean cleared his throat and uncomfortably squeezed his friend's shoulder. "Listen, Cas, it's cool. I get it."

Castiel glared at him with a look of pure angel smite-y-ness. "Let me finish, Dean."

Dean raised his hands in surrender as Castiel pressed on. "I'm sorry for trying to kill you. I'm sorry for not being there when you called. I'm sorry for not being a good friend to you. I'm sorry for abandoning you in Purgatory. I'm sorry for not leaving Purgatory with you. I'm sorry for trying to become God. I'm sorry for hurting Sam. I'm sorry for becoming a monster. I'm sorry for releasing Leviathan into the world. I'm sorry for not trusting you. I'm sorry for lying to you. I'm sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for everything."

Castiel had said all of those sorries softly to his hands on his lap, refusing to look at Dean. He looked up and met Dean's eyes when he was through. Dean had never seen the angel look so humble before, so human.

Dean sighed, "Cas, we've already forgiven you. Dude, have you met me? Have you met Sam? We've all had our share of epic screw-ups but we always forgive each other because we're family, man. Stop beating yourself up about shit that you can't change. You're our best friend, Cas, we're just happy you're here now and you're okay, ya know? So how about we close the curtain on this chick flick moment, pretend it never happened, and have a manly discussion about what's been going on with you since I saw you last."

Castiel's lips curled into a small smile. "Thank you, Dean."

"Sure," Dean grunted. "So, what happened after you skidaddled with the tablet?"

"After I... skidaddled, as you say, I hid the tablet inside of myself and I used quantum physics to cloak my whereabouts from Naomi and her followers."

"Woah, wait, what? Like, inside of yourself... like..." Dean gaped at Castiel's stomach. "Dude, that's so badass that I'm going to let the nerdy physics crap in that sentence slide."

Castiel gave Dean a fairly accurate impersonation of Sam's bitchface before continuing. "Unfortunately, Naomi used my unangelic concern for humanity to capture me."

Dean let the fact that a concern for humanity is apparently unangelic resonate in his head bitterly for a second before prompting Cas to continue. "And then?"

"She attempted to force me to divulge the whereabouts of the tablet to her, which I refused. Then Crowley showed up, thanks to one of Naomi's angels being a double agent, I believe you would say. Naomi ran away and Crowley shot me with a bullet made from a melted down angel blade." Dean's eyes widened at this. "I begin to weaken gradually after this as Crowley attempted to discover the whereabouts of the tablet. Unfortunately, he is more clever than Naomi, and he deduced that the tablet was hidden in my abdomen. He took it, then he left."

"Damn," Dean muttered. "How are you still here, man?"

"I managed to dislodge the bullet and use it to kill Naomi's traitorous angel, clearing the path for my escape. I only just had the grace left to cling to our connection and fly myself to you. Unfortunately, I must wait for my grace to heal now, which may take a while. It has been seriously compromised."

"Oh," Dean said, somewhat at a loss for words. "Wait, we have a connection?"

Castiel tilted his head and looked at Dean curiously. "Of course, Dean, I raised you from perdition."

"So, wait, do you have a connection with Sam? Didn't you raise him from perdition too?"

Castiel shifted uncomfortably. "Well that wasn't quite the same. Sam was not damned to Hell as you were. He was in the cage, which is not even a part of Hell proper. Sam Winchester was not even dead, so he was still existing on the mortal plane, whereas you were on the metaphysical plane. When I raised you, I raised your soul. I tucked your soul inside of my grace and fought your way out of the many layers of Hell myself. With Sam, I simply appeared and 'mojo'd' his body out of the cage. If you recall, I didn't even come into contact with his soul."

Dean blinked. "So you're saying, you're like... connected to my soul?"

Castiel looked at his hands on his laps, fidgeting. The goddamn angel of the lord was actually FIDGETING. What the hell? "Well, you see, when I took your soul within my grace to raise you, it came into contact with my own soul. Angels have souls just as people do, you see, and an angel's grace envelops his soul, protecting him. I... cradled your soul so... protectively that it retreated so far into my grace that it met my soul, which... should not have happened."

Dean narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"Because when that happens, the souls each absorb small pieces of each other," Castiel muttered.

Dean gaped. "So what you're saying is... we have a piece of each other's freakin souls? What does that even mean?"

Castiel sighed, exasperated. "It doesn't MEAN anything, Dean. It has never been known to happen in this situation before and, as far as I can tell, the only side effects include us being more attuned to each other than normal."

"Oh..." Dean said, still in a minor state of shock. "So that's what you mean by profound bond, then, huh?"

Castiel nodded. "It also explains why you were able to locate me in Purgatory despite my best efforts and also why you held to the belief that I was still alive after the Leviathans were released and I became Emmanuel."

Dean considered it. It made sense. "So that's never happened with an angel before, huh?"

Cas shook his head.

"What about with humans?"

Castiel blushed and lowered his eyes again. "Well, you see, with humans... when humans are first created, in heaven... their souls are crafted individually and uniquely by a certain class of angels. These angels, they work together and they determine who will be... important in the life of each soul. For example, when the souls of John Winchester and Mary Campbell were created, the angels knew that they would be very important to each other."

Dean was confused. "Okay?"

Castiel shifted his weight. "Well, before the soul is placed inside of the mother's womb, the angels... modify it to indicate the people who will shape that soul."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Can you just explain this in simple terms because I am so lost, dude."

Castiel sighed. "Okay, Dean, everyone has a soul, you are aware?"

Dean nodded. "Yes, I got that."

"And a person's soul is the essence of who he is. The body is merely a house for the soul. Actually, the body is a manifestation of the soul. So what I see with angelic eyes when I look upon your soul is the same as what humans see when they look at your body. Same thing, different plane of existence."

Dean's eyes squinted a little at that. "Wait, hold on. So basically you're saying I'm a sexy son of a bitch because my soul is a sexy son of a bitch?"

Castiel glared at him in annoyance. "Not exactly. Standards of attractiveness vary from being to being, from generation to generation, etc. The appearance of a soul and it's body are more than just a level of attractiveness. The human body manifestation is a much simpler version of how a soul looks on the metaphysical plane. But, yes, you do have a very vibrant soul, very eye-catching, which translates, I suppose, into your above average attractiveness to the human eye."

Dean smirked. "Cas, did you just call me attractive?"

Castiel threw him his best smite-y bitchface.

Dean rolled his eyes. "How does that work with vessels, though? Like, you said that angels have souls, but when they take on human bodies, they're using other people's bodies. So they don't get a physical manifestation of their souls or whatever?"

"Not the same way humans do, no. But an angel's true vessel, like Jimmy is to me, share souls very similar to one another. Obviously, they're not identical, but if I were to be human, I would look almost identical to Jimmy Novak. But if you compared our souls side by side, you would be able to pick out distinct differences. The physical plane is less specific than the metaphysical one."

"Huh," Dean said, intrigued. "This is kinda off topic though. What exactly does this have to do with you and me and our souls and profound bond and what not?"

"Well, when the soul is first formed in heaven, it is purely and completely YOUR essence. However, before the soul gets sent down to Earth, the angels reconstruct the souls to give people the bonds they share in life."

"I don't follow."

"Okay, take John Winchester's soul for example. The angels first formed it, and it was completely John Winchester. But before they sent the soul into the womb of John's mother, they took pieces of his soul off and exchanged them with the pieces of a few other souls. They exchanged a piece with Mary Campbell's soul, and also one with Sam Winchester's soul, Bobby Singer's soul, Adam Milligan's soul, and your own soul."

"Wait, I have a piece of my Dad's soul?"

Castiel nodded. "Yes. And also a piece of Sam's, your mother's, Bobby's, Charlie Bradbury's, your friend Benny's, and... mine."

"So all of the people that we... exchange soul pieces with or whatever... are people who are important to us? People who shape our lives?"

"Yes. That is part of what makes humans so different from angels. Angels don't grow attached to one another. They don't love. They don't learn from others. Angels don't exchange soul pieces with other beings."

"... Except for you?"

"Yes."

"Huh," Dean muttered.

"On an unrelated note, I learned something from Naomi that you may also find interesting," Cas said.

"Yeah?"

"She admitted to controlling the minds of the angels for a very long time. I'm not even sure what this means, Dean. She shouldn't even be able to do this. She's not the most powerful angel. She's not an archangel. But she's been doing it. And apparently I have been rebelling for years and I have had my memory cleared multiple times. This time, I seem to have evaded her before she could do so again, however."

"Woah," Dean said. "You didn't think to lead with that, Cas? Holy shit, man, that means Naomi has been behind everything. The apocalypse... that was all Naomi. Cas, this is huge."

Castiel nodded. "I know."

Dean smirked. "And apparently, you've been on Team Free Will since way before I was even born. Props, man."

"Thank you," Castiel said, with a small smile.

"Well, man, this has been one deep-ass conversation and you look as exhausted as I feel. You feel up to some sleep?"

Cas contemplated the idea. "That does sound appealing."

Dean smiled. "Here, man, you've still got blood all over your face."

Dean took Castiel's face in his hands and he cleaned up Cas's face, ridding it of sweat and dried blood. "You've got blood all over your pants too. Take your shoes off, then change into these, okay?" Dean said, indicating the clothes that Sam had placed beside Cas earlier. "And don't move too quickly, you've got a lot of stitches in you."

Castiel nodded obediently and Dean turned his back on him while he changed. He dug around in his dresser for something more comfortable for himself and quickly changed, back still to Castiel.

When he turned back around, he found Castiel lying back on the bed, Dean's clothes too big for him, looking utterly exhausted.

"We don't have another bed ready at the moment and I'm pooped, so do you mind if we share tonight?" Dean asked.

"Okay," Castiel said sleepily, his head sinking into the pillow.

Dean smirked and laid down next to him after turning off the light. Before they drifted off to sleep he turned toward Castiel. "Hey, Cas?"

Castiel sleepily opened his startlingly bright blue eyes and faced Dean, "yes, Dean?"

"So you were just... ignoring my prayers because you had no other choice, right? You weren't, like, dissing me or anything?" Dean coughed uncomfortably. "Because Naomi kept saying things about how I was loyal to you and stuff but you didn't feel the same way or whatever, and..."

"Dean," Castiel interrupted. He put his palm to Dean's cheek. "I will always feel the same way. I was not 'dissing' you. Go to sleep, Dean."

Dean nodded and Castiel rolled over and was lightly snoring within seconds. Dean didn't even have time to think about the fact that it might be weird to be sharing a bed with Castiel before he was asleep too.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! This story is probably going to end up really long but I hope to update regularly and I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts along the way so PLEASE don't hesitate to review because I freakin live for reviews ;)**


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